Shouldn´t that be "fearing imminent harm"?

Yes, it should be "harm" but the bottom line is, they got tired of waiting.

Did they have a camera in there? How did they observe him with a gun, I figured he already had a gun with him in the first place?

Win-win.

This good idea (busting in) was also a good idea last week.

Still....thank God.

"The gunman, 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, is deceased - although authorities have not confirmed yet whether he was killed by law enforcement officers or took his own life."

I´d like to know how Dykes died; by his own hand or by Federal agents?

"FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Richardson said during a news conference that negotiations had broken down and Dykes had been seen holding a gun."

What what Dykes actually doing with the gun? Was he pointing it at the boy, or merely holding it? Did he threaten to kill the boy? I´d like to know.

"Those actions forced the hand of FBI agents, who entered the bunker."

Well, that´s what they are telling us. Call me cynical, but I want to know if the Federal agents just got tired of waiting and used the claim that the negotiations were "deteriorating" as a convenient excuse to go barging in. I´m sure this little boy was quite traumatized by the whole thing.

I´m so glad this little boy is safe, but I don´t "trust" the Government, either.

Busting in was dangerous until law enforcement managed to get a camera in and determined what Gates was really up to. For all they knew he was ready to shoot the child if anyone tried getting in. It probably took most of this time to run the camera.

Why am I thinking we all lost on this? Countless examples show the FBI/ATF/LEOs way too often use the media to portray someone holding up on their property as evil bad guys when it´s really the government who are bad guys.

I´m glad the kid is OK. I´m not glad anyone got killed. Gunman? My ass.

Hello! This wasn´t just some anti government nut holed up on his property minding his own business. This was an evil maniac who kidnapped an innocent child and killed a bus driver on a packed school bus. Good grief! The FBI deserves a pat on the back for this rescue.

There is a poster here in need of help.

Bless this little boy and his family.

7, are you forgetting Dykes shot and killed a bus driver to get on the bus and grab this child and took him hostage. Dykes was a gunman and already a killer! What are you talking about.

#5, : ´barging in´? Really? Did this evil nutcase piece of (filth) have some kind of reasonable expectation of privacy? What color is the sky on your home planet?

So thankful this little boy is safe. He´s got a tough road ahead, God Bless him.

Don´t ask HOW he died, hey, he already killed a bus driver!

I don´t care how the hell he died!

Thank God for Ethan´s safe recovery! In the meantime, a couple of nutty posters making an a**of themselves!!
Ted in Michigan

Sometimes the FBI does a good job. They seem to have done so this time.

The kidnapper and murderer was some kind of demented monster, holding that little boy hostage for a week. Someone needed to put him down, and someone did.

Let´s just be thankful that he didn´t surrender. He´d have been tied up in the courts for years, with a tax-payer funded defense attorney claiming he wasn´t competent enough to go to trial...

7, your ass, since that seems to be what you´re doing your reasoning with, needs to understand that the furry critter killed somebody, and then kidnapped a child and held the child at gunpoint in his end-of-the-world bunker. Please don´t sympathize with the jerk.

Another nut case who figured out that the media would give him an abundance of free publicity if he perpetrated some sort of insane criminal act as he set out on his own personal suicide by cop mission.

Win...win...win...all around!

Any truth to the rumor that Algeria volunteered the services of its HRT?

18: Yeah, it´s a win for everybody. Except for the little five year old boy, who was kidnapped and threatened and traumatized by that EVIL, self-pitying LOSER who held him at gunpoint in his LOSER survivalist bunker for a week. That kid is likely messed up for life, courtesy of this evil loser.

Children can be amazingly resilient. I hope this is the case with Ethan. I have not a shred of sympathy for the scum who kidnapped him. This man threatened a bus full of children, killed the driver who was trying to protect them and then kidnapped an innocent child. As far as I am concerned, he got off way too easy.

I have a 5 year old with autism. Probably lower-functioning than the boy, but similar enough that I have strong opinions.

This situation is my worst nightmare. My child doesn´t sleep. My child has tantrums that last hours. My child is not a typical child. Children who have autism and higher intelligence have anxiety like you would not believe.
Every once in a while a jackass gets on here and tries to suggest that autism is my fault. It´s not. Let´s just start with that.

These kids can be very very hard to raise, even though they are amazing and awesome. (http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2009/11/10/autism-moms-stress/6121/)

These kids are not typical kids. Typical grief counseling won´t work.

This family needs all of the support that we can give them. I hope to God that good therapists will step up to work with the family.

I´m glad they killed the perp. Matthew 18:10- these kids have special angels that are always before God. May God have mercy on His soul, but more importantly, may the world start to look out a little more for our disabled kids and the people who work with them, many of whom we consider to be angels from Heaven.

The man was a homicidal freak, and the FBI achieved a wonderful result after trying all the conventional approaches. I´m not religious generally but I do remember to thank God for outcomes like this one - I hope the child recovers and I pray for the family of the bus driver that the maniac murdered.

I stand by my comments in #5. I´m well aware of what happened here (and that the perpetrator was a nut case). Shame on those of you making disparaging remarks to the contrary. I´m a very long-time poster her.

On one hand, #5 wants to know what happened: did the FBI just get tired of waiting, or did the FBI "go barging in" because the situation was deteriorating?

On the other hand, #24 claims to know very well what happened. One has to wonder what was learned in the intervening time, and what was learned, and how it was learned.